PANews reported on November 1 that the mBridge project update released on the official website of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) showed that 23 central banks, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are observing the initiative. So far, 11 of the 25 observer members have participated in the sandbox, allowing participants to simulate mBridge nodes and transactions. So far, mBridge has an Asian/Middle Eastern tendency, and the observer members have shown the same pattern. Participants in the group come from all continents, including six from Asia (Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Turkey) and five from the Middle East (Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia). The United States is represented by the New York Innovation Center, which is affiliated with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. There are also five EU member states among the mBridge observers, including the European Central Bank.
mBridge plans to launch a minimum viable project by the middle of next year. The mBridge project was created by the central banks of Thailand, Hong Kong, China and the United Arab Emirates and is part of the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub in Hong Kong.
